


Need a Ride?

by servantofclio



Series: Zoe Ryder [9]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: F/M, guest appearances by Vetra and Gil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-06
Updated: 2017-06-06
Packaged: 2018-11-09 16:08:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11108073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/servantofclio/pseuds/servantofclio
Summary: Zoe sprains her ankle and needs a little help.





	Need a Ride?

Okay, look, it was a dumb way to get injured, but the thing was, Zoe Ryder had jumped from the upper deck to the lower deck of the cargo bay approximately a million times. The lift was never on the right level, somehow, and it took a stupidly long time to get from one level to the next, and it was only a bit over a two-meter drop, which was practically nothing. And most importantly, she’d never gotten hurt before, any of the thousands of times she’d jumped to the lower level, so there was no particular reason to think she was going to get hurt this time.

But this time, she got distracted or something, and when she landed, she landed off-balance. She rolled her ankle so badly she could feel something pop, and instead of loping off cheerfully to see what the rest of the crew were up to, she ended up rolling on her back on the floor, clutching her ankle and saying, “Ow ow ow ow _fucking ouch_.”

“What happened here?” Gil demanded, poking his head through the door.

“I fell,” Zoe said. “ _Ow_.”

“You jumped, you mean,” Vetra said, sounding amused. “You brought this on yourself, Ryder.”

Zoe glared up at her. Vetra was just unfairly tall, especially from this angle. “One time. One time I landed wrong. I must have made that jump a million times and _one time_ I landed wrong.”

“You okay, Ryder?” Liam asked, laughing. He might have at least pretended he wasn’t laughing. Zoe did her best to glare at him, too.

He was smiling at her, though, which made it hard for her to be too mad at him, even if it was at her own expense. Plus, he’d been doing something or other to the Nomad, lending Gil a hand with it, and he’d thrown off his shirt at some point, so he was standing there looking also unfairly tall, and even more unfairly lean and attractive.

“It’s just a sprain,” she said, attempting not to be distracted. “It’s no big deal. I’ve sprained ankles before.” Ignoring the various hands helpfully offered, Zoe pushed herself up onto her feet, only to yelp and hop frantically on one foot, holding the injured foot off the deck. She flailed her arms wildly, trying to keep from falling over again, and both Liam and Gil reached in to grab her arms and keep her upright.

“Right,” Liam said. “Time to go see Lexi.”

“Look, it’s not that big a deal, I’ll just ice it.” Cautiously, she put her foot to the floor again, figuring maybe it had just been the suddenness of putting weight on it that had caused pain to shoot up her ankle. Sometimes these things worked themselves out with a little time.

Nope. Nope nope nope. Not this time. She was pretty sure she hadn’t broken anything, but whatever she’d done to her ankle hurt a hell of a lot and hurt a lot worse if she put any weight on it at all.

Liam, Gil, and Vetra were all looking at her with expressions that mingled amusement, pity, and _I told you so_. “Okay,” Zoe said. “Going to see Lexi, then.”

“Good call, Pathfinder,” Liam said. She shot him a severe look to indicate that she did not appreciate sarcasm at this moment. He just smirked at her.

Zoe valiantly resisted the urge to stick out her tongue and started hopping across the deck.

“Come on, Ryder, you can’t be serious,” Gil said.

“I can make it,” she replied, concentrating.

“Whoa now, there’s no need for that,” Liam said, intercepting her.

Teetering on her good foot, Zoe said through gritted teeth, “No, I’m good. Since you find all this so amusing and all.”

“It’s a little funny,” he said. “You know, you fall out of shuttles, off of cliffs, off the walkway...”

She glared up at him. Liam chuckled. “Come on, let me give you a hand?”

“All right,” she allowed, but as he bent, added, “Wait, wait, you’re not going to scoop me up bridal style, are you?”

Liam straightened up. “No?”

“Because I don’t do bridal style,” Zoe informed him. At least, she wasn’t feeling it right now, and she was pretty sure he couldn’t carry her that way without either her head or her feet knocking against the wall every other step. She was pretty sure she could hear Vetra and Gil snickering behind her, but she decided to ignore it.

“Obviously not, then,” Liam said. “Here, let’s try this,” and turned around, back to her. “Hop on.”

He still hadn’t bothered to put a shirt on. Zoe bit her lip, eyeing the swath of gorgeous skin and muscle in front of her. Liam glanced back over his shoulder. “Problem?”

“Nope, no problem,” she said, and hopped, slinging her arms around his nice broad shoulders to give herself an extra pull. They had to adjust a bit while she wrapped her legs around his waist as well, and he took a good grip on her legs.

“All set back there?”

“Yeah,” she said, her stomach fluttering a little. All of his warmth soaking into her made her skin prickle. She held on tighter, ducking her head as they went through the doorway, and wishing the trip to the medbay was just a little longer.


End file.
